Normal
by Kate McCaye
Summary: Suppose Sam actually did take a vacation with her dad at the end of "The Devil You Know." This is just a little story about them coming back to the SGC afterwards. Sam missed work, and Jacob figures something out about Sam and Jack.


Title: Normal

Rating: PG for mild language, suitable for primetime

Spoilers: Post "The Devil You Know," but all you really need to know is that Jacob asked Sam to go on a vacation near the end of the episode. This assumes they have been there, done that, and are back at the SGC.

Normal

Jacob Carter followed his daughter into the SGC with a smile on his face almost as big as hers. It was hard to believe she could get that excited about going back to work after their week-long vacation. Then again, considering who she was and what she did, he supposed he should have expected nothing less.

Still, he thought she might try to act a bit more... normal. He half-expected her to start skipping down the hallway as they headed towards the commissary for breakfast. They were to meet everyone there for Jacob's last Earth meal before he went back to the Tok'ra.

As they entered the commissary, they saw that General Hammond was already there, at a large table with a cup of coffee and a folder he was perusing. "George!" Jacob hailed, crossing over to him with Sam following.

General Hammond stood up, smiling at them both. "Jacob! Good to see you." They shook hands. "How was the vacation?"

"It was great, thanks for asking."

"Major Carter, welcome back," Hammond said with a warm smile.

"Thank you sir, it's great to be back!" Sam said with a huge grin. A bit overenthusiastic, in Jacob's opinion.

"Well, maybe we should go get in line before all the good muffins are gone," General Hammond suggested.

Sam started to follow the two Generals to the back of the short line, but as the door opened again she turned quickly with a hopeful look on her face and said, "Yes!" under her breath as her face lit up again. Jacob watched as she hurried over to the rest of her team, who had just entered the commissary.

She threw her arms around Daniel, launching herself at him at such a velocity that he lost his balance and took half a step back as he returned the hug. "That's exactly how she's always hugged Mark," Jacob thought to himself. They were obviously speaking to each other, but they were all too far away for Jacob to hear anything other than the occasional laugh.

Teal'c was next to Daniel. Rather than hugging him, which Jacob thought would probably be a lot like hugging a tree, Sam stood up on her tiptoes and kissed him on the cheek. He gave her a small smile and a head tilt, which was his way of returning the gesture. As his daughter turned to her CO, she stiffened noticeably and shook his hand. Jacob was relieved; apparently she hadn't lost all sense of how a proper soldier should act. He was smiling at her in a way Jacob wasn't completely comfortable with, and something he said made her giggle loud enough to be heard clear across the room.

"Um, Jacob, you want to keep it moving?" Hammond suggested.

"Oh, sorry." He grabbed his tray and started down the line.

"So, did you have a good time?" Hammond asked.

"Oh, yeah, I really did. Sam did too."

"That's good to hear."

"Yeah. Although by the end of the week she was dying to get back to work."

"I can imagine."

"She never said anything, of course, but she regressed to an old childhood habit she used to have."

"What's that?"

"Taking apart anything in sight and putting it back together."

"Ah."

"Yeah. At least now I don't have to worry about her electrocuting herself like I did when she was five. Still. It's kind of annoying when you want the hair dryer and it's in a hundred pieces."

"A hair dryer? For what, Jake?" Hammond joked, looking pointedly at his friend's head.

"Oh, you're one to talk," Jacob replied. "Anyway, you should be glad we took this vacation, because now I don't have to punch you in the nose," Jacob said casually as they took their trays over to their table.

"What?" Hammond asked.

"I was convinced you were working my little girl way too hard."

"Why?"

"Well, you know I'm back in touch with Mark now.."

"Yeah."

"Well, being around his family just made me think about Sam a little more is all. I got it in my head the reason she's not had any relationships, at least none worth mentioning to me, was that you were keeping her way too busy here. But that can't be it. It's got to be something else."

"What makes you so sure of that?"

"Because Sam's always kept herself busy, and she's always been in a relationship. Even when she was doing her undergrad degree in two years instead of four, she still had time to date. I think his name was Michael. Anyway, the point is, it's obviously not work, so I guess it's something else."

"I guess. To be honest with you, Jacob, I don't spend a lot of time pondering my subordinates' love lives," Hammond said with a chuckle.

Jacob laughed as well and glanced back to where all of SG1 were still standing in a small clump, talking quietly. He caught Jack's eye and waved. Jack waved back and said something to the group that made them all head over to the line.

"I wouldn't worry about your daughter too much, Jacob. She's a part of the closest team I've ever seen."

"I'm starting to understand that."

"All three of those men would die for her in a second. I'm thankful for that team every day. But at the same time they're incredibly frustrating. So damn stubborn. All four of them. The most hard-headed group of people I've ever met. They'd rather all die together on some godforsaken planet than leave anybody behind. At the same time, there's something to be said for that obviously, because they're the only unit that hasn't lost a man yet."

"Well, after my last ordeal, I'm feeling pretty damn grateful for their stubbornness."

"Stubborn?" Jack O'Neill asked, as all of SG1 joined the two men at the table. "Anybody we know?"he asked innocently, reaching for the syrup.

"No, no, of course not, I have no idea what you're talking about, do you, George?" Jacob asked innocently, buttering his toast.

Sam rolled her eyes while Teal'c gave his smallest of indulgent smiles. Daniel pretended not to hear any of it. Or perhaps he truly hadn't heard, as he was absorbed in his coffee. And Jack smiled sarcastically and said, "Do I sense mocking, Jake?"

"Perhaps, Jack."

"Well then I know where Carter gets it from," he said, clapping her on the back. "And here I was thinking it was my years and years of coaching in the art of sarcasm."

Daniel laughed into his coffee cup. Sam stifled her laughter and smiled into her cup of yoghurt. Jacob looked between them and said, "Sorry to burst your bubble then, Jack. But Sam's been a smart-ass since she learned how to talk."

"Dad!" Sam objected, blushing and glancing nervously at General Hammond, but he was smiling indulgently.

"Don't worry, Major. I don't think there are many secrets your dad could tell us that would make me less than thrilled you're back from your vacation. I underestimated how... creative the boys of SG1 would get without you here to... keep an eye on things."

"Sir?" Sam asked, turning to her CO with a quizzical look.

"Why do you automatically assume he was referring to me, Carter?" Jack demanded, putting on his innocent look. Daniel rolled his eyes. "Besides," Jack continued. "I'm more interested in testing the General's theory... let's hear some of those secrets, Jake."

Sam shot her father a look and he held up his hands defensively. "Now, now, Sam, I wouldn't dare tell them about the time you snuck out of the house and got..."

"DAD!" she said, so loudly that several other officers turned to see what all the noise was about. Blushing again, she cast around a change of subject and said, "So, Daniel, what did you do this week?"

"Well, it's really interesting actually, I was cataloguing a lot of backed up logs from old missions and I discovered a possible connection between the caves of P6X349 and P3X358, which got me thinking..." Daniel began.

Sam leaned back in her chair with a triumphant smirk, crossing her arms. While the rest of the table, except for Daniel who was too engrossed in his story to realize that nobody else cared at all, went back to their breakfasts, Jack leaned over to her and said quietly, "Way to go, Carter. It wasn't bad enough once, now I've got to listen to him recapping the entire week."

"I'm surprised you didn't go fishing, sir," she said innocently, picking through her bowl of fruit salad for the strawberries.

"By myself?!" he asked incredulously. "Obviously you are underestimating the challenge, Carter. These fish are huge. It wouldn't be safe to try and reel one in without backup."

"Really," she said skeptically.

"Oh yeah. Last summer, a man called... Shorts Magillicuddy tried it and he was never heard from again. All they found was his fishing hat and tackle box," he said seriously.

"Right," Sam said, trying not to giggle.

Jacob, who had listened to Daniel longer than anybody else had bothered, was distracted by the conversation that was passing between his daughter and her CO. Nobody at the table seemed to be taking note of it. Either they were fascinated by what Daniel was saying (doubtful) or they were used to that type of thing. More important than the actual conversation (when on Earth or any other planet had his daughter ever talked about _fishing _for two seconds?) was the way she was looking at him, or more specifically, deliberately _not_ looking at him.

He suddenly figured out the answer to his own question to General Hammond earlier and instantly spilled his cup of extremely hot coffee all over himself. All attention turned to him, but he waved away offers of help, saying, "Selmak'll take care of it."

"Oh, he gets out stains now too? Now that's service," Jack said.

Jacob narrowed his eyes at Jack, then shot a look at Sam, who was laughing at her CO's stupid joke. Had she always thought he was funny? He couldn't remember. The man was closer to his age than hers, it had never occurred to him to watch out for him. He had thirty years of experience watching out for potential "threats," (as he liked to consider any male who looked at her more than once) to his daughter, and apparently he had let a really big one slip by the Dad-radar.

"If you'll excuse me, I'd like to get changed before I go home," Jacob said abruptly, standing up and dabbing at his shirt with a napkin. It was a thinly veiled excuse to get away from everyone and gather his thoughts, so that he could decide which would be the best course of action: shoot Jack with a zat gun, warn him to stop looking at his daughter like that and _then _shoot him with a zat gun, or ask George for permission to shoot Jack with a zat gun.

"Aw, Dad, hang on a minute," Sam called after him as he headed out of the commissary. He could hear her getting up and following after him.

"Yeah, Dad, don't go!" Jack called after her.

Imbecile, Jacob thought. The absolute worst time he could have possibly called him 'Dad.' That was classic Jack O'Neill timing for you, though, wasn't it, he thought, unable to keep from chuckling, just once, at the absurdity of the situation.

"Dad? You okay?" Sam asked, catching him up just outside the locker room.

"I'm fine, Sammy, why?" he asked, sounding a lot kinder than he meant to, in an effort to sound normal.

She looked at him funny, but he could tell she decided to let it go since he was about to leave anyway. "Just concerned. You sure you're okay? Did something happen at breakfast..."

"No, I'm just... not quite ready to say goodbye to you yet, Sam," he said truthfully.

She gave him the smile she had used when she wanted those damn hamsters when she was six and he shook his head, unable to keep from returning it.

"I'm going to change. I'll be fast," he promised, squeezing her shoulder briefly before going into the locker room.

Twenty minutes later, he was standing at the bottom of the ramp, saying goodbye to his daughter and the rest of her team. He had already said goodbye to General Hammond, who watched from the control room, and as he said goodbye to Teal'c and Daniel, he knew the boys of SG1 were there more for his daughter than for him, and that made him feel better about leaving.

"Jake," Jack said with a warm smile, shaking his hand. Clearly the man was completely oblivious to how close he had come to being zatted earlier.

Jacob settled for squeezing his hand a bit harder than necessary and, on the pretext of squeezing his shoulder in a manly display of affection, he said quietly into his ear, "You'd better keep her safe, Jack."

He had to give the man credit, he covered his surprise well. There was a small flash of it at the back of his eyes and then he smiled and said loudly, "Always a pleasure to see you, Jacob. Selmak."

Nodding, Jacob turned to his daughter and hugged her tightly, resisting the urge to lift her up off the ground like when she was a child. Somehow he had a feeling she wouldn't really appreciate it now, especially in the middle of a crowded gateroom.

"Bye, Dad. Take care."

"You too, Sam. I'll be in touch." He squeezed her arm once more and let go reluctantly, walking up the ramp. At the event horizon, he turned back to look once more. All of SG1 had moved closer together so that they were all standing in a shoulder-to-shoulder (forearm in Teal'c's case, of course) clump, seemingly automatically. He shook his head slightly at the four of them. George was right, he mused. The four most tightly-bonded, most stubborn people he had ever met. He turned and stepped over the event horizon.


End file.
